Housing system is terrible and punishing!

I do not understand how a game of this size and success could offer one of the worst housing experiences in any current day MMO. Availability issues aside, the entire interface is unintuitive, clunky, and worst of all punishing.

I have now figured out that I am going to lose half of my gil on an accidental purchase of a Free Company property that was intended for a private. I have no options to cancel the bid (which is also mind boggling that this is not implemented) nor any recourse to simply give up the property for a refund. Instead I am being punished for an honest mistake.

I do not craft nor make tons of Gil so this is kind of painful. I understand this is ultimately on me but surely I am not the only one who has made this mistake.

This system in its current state is outright horrible and does not value its players time.

You checked the box to confirm that you wanted to make the purchase. That's on you. It's not an honest mistake but a negligent one.

You can't cancel your bid for a reason. It would become easy to troll or rig bids on properties by placing lots of fake bids making a property appear extremely wanted so no one else bids only to pull out at the last minute leaving only the bid of the primary bidder.
You could let the house expire not entering your house and reclaim 80% by the way.
The buying interface is quite clear and it asks you clearly if you want to buy private or fc. How many confirmation messages should SE add for people who dont bother to read them and just blindly click through.
This from someone who has bought several houses over time so i have seen that dialogue a few times.

I’m sorry that you made a mistake but the fact that you made a mistake doesn’t necessarily mean that the entire housing system is terrible and punishing. Are you sure that SE support can’t help you?

Even if SqE support does not want to help, a FC with a house is allowed to be sold for gil. So you can get the entire cost of the house back.

No I already stated this was on me.
What I do not understand is the punishment aspect, but as you all are saying it is an anti-exploit measure then I understand that. It still stands there needs to be some measure in place to get your gil back or some means to legitimately cancel the bid. I would not even mind if they held on to the sum for some X amount of time to ensure there were no repeat bidding.

I also won it by default meaning no other bidders were present and no one else would have been impacted. Our FC already has a house somewhere else. Would keeping it and selling the one I bid on interrupt the other house? Can an FC own more then one?

They might have to kick you to keep the house, yes.

But you can start a new FC, assign it to the house, and sell the house for gil to get back the gil you spent.

Might have to assign ownership of it to an alt, it might take a while, but once the alt has it, you should be able to safely rejoin your FC.

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Originally Posted by Sinoja

No I already stated this was on me.
What I do not understand is the punishment aspect, but as you all are saying it is an anti-exploit measure then I understand that. It still stands there needs to be some measure in place to get your gil back or some means to legitimately cancel the bid. I would not even mind if they held on to the sum for some X amount of time to ensure there were no repeat bidding.

I also won it by default meaning no other bidders were present and no one else would have been impacted. Our FC already has a house somewhere else. Would keeping it and selling the one I bid on interrupt the other house? Can an FC own more then one?

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An FC can only own one house. I know some players get confused because they'll see the same FC tag on multiple houses but that's actually multiple separate FCs. Confirming purchase of the house would move your FC's house to that plot. They would lose the other plot with only about 15% of that plot's value being applied toward the one you purchased. It's definitely better to take the 50% penalty than an 85% penalty (especially if your FC has a more valuable house).

One thing I would suggest for your FC to do is to remove Land Acquisition entitlements from all ranks so members can't accidently enter the lottery for a FC house instead of a personal house and so the FC house can't be relocated by accident. If the FC is trying to relocate, the FC Master can temporarily toggle the rank entitlement back on when it's time to enter and to finalize the purchase if the FC wins.

SE can't keep changing rules around just because there were fewer bidders during one lottery period than another. As the others have said, the gil penalty is there to discourage players from trolling the system. It does require you to confirm your entry twice and will list type of purchase both times in addition to the purchase restriction being listed on the placard before you attempt to enter. SE has done a reasonable job of trying to prevent mistakes from happening.

Sometimes we have to take the penalty for our mistakes and learn from them.

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Originally Posted by ICountFrom0

They might have to kick you to keep the house, yes.

But you can start a new FC, assign it to the house, and sell the house for gil to get back the gil you spent.

Might have to assign ownership of it to an alt, it might take a while, but once the alt has it, you should be able to safely rejoin your FC.

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Won't work due to the 30 day waiting period.

There is a way to get your gil back. Wait the until the claiming period is over and you get 50%.

There is a confirmation prompt where you have to click "yes I understand" and it quite clearly says an entry can't be withdrawn. It's no different than discarding an expensive item and clicking "yes, discard". You aren't being punished when you can't get back what you agreed to give up.

The same applies to free company leaders who let any member relocate and somebody ends up relocating by accident. If they don't want that to happen, they shouldn't allow it to happen.

It is what it is and I am forced to just let go... not the end of the world!

There are so many additional window pop ups throughout the game that I close or dismiss on a regular basis that it becomes invisible to me. So, again I know it is ultimately my doing and my mistake for missing it.

I feel the title of my thread still stands however and Square Enix needs to slap a big red colored "Limited" above the Player Housing feature showcase upon the title's website as this feature is not readily available nor accessible to all.

The Housing system is indeed punishing with its draconic approach in an attempt to curb player exploitation of a flawed system, a problem created by the game's developers... not the player. This entire aspect is counterintuitive to what this feature's intended purpose should be. There is no room for error, no room for a change of heart, not even a grace period. You are hard in stone "locked in" with zero options after submitting a bid. This is indeed a terrible system.

Those of you who would counter this opinion would then ask: "Why should Square Enix change what is in place just for you?"

I would then respond: "Fair point, I am no one special. But forgive me for being a paying customer that would like to further expand my enjoyment of your product by participating in what is advertised as a feature of your game providing longevity to my vested interest. Yes indeed, how dare I expect a company that generates two and half billion dollars in annual revenue to deliver upon a feature that most other, even lesser MMO titles have successfully. Pardon my misplaced expectations."

I will still enjoy this game and its story for what it is. When it comes to housing, I am too disgusted with its current implementation to try again and will enjoy this feature elsewhere.

I appreciate everyone's clarifications and feedback and will go on with my day.

Thank you.

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Originally Posted by Sinoja

snip.

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Few would disagree with you when it comes to problems with the housing system that are of SE's own design. It's been discussed over and over since long before I joined the forums.

If you do find a game with an active player base and a better housing system, many would appreciate hearing about it. RIFT has a superior housing system in my opinion but no longer has an active player base since Gamigo purchased Trion. It's still worth a look to see what housing has the potential to be. Access to Dimensions (the name of their housing system) is unlocked shortly after completing the tutorial starting area. The game itself is technically F2P (you won't need to pay anything to get the access) but has a terrible cash shop monetization system.

Apartments are still an option for a small taste of housing in this game if you can't get a house. There are some very well done apartments despite the small item limit.